Lured by the thundering hooves and electric buzz of the Derby, Joseph D’Costa left life as a professional cook for Parsi firms and ship crews to set up shop opposite the Mahalaxmi racecourse in 1918. So he was happy to serve kheema pao and tea out of a tin shed to jockeys, trainers and bookies, and to army men at the Tardeo barracks. Nearly a century later, his 60-year-old grandson Joaquim D’Costa buys fresh meat and fish every day before he comes in to ensure it is business as usual at the bustling, pink-walled, multi-cuisine Race View Restaurant.
D’Costa remembers helping out at the restaurant with his brothers after school, a custom he has carried on with his son, who still drops in when his ship comes in to port. D’Costa renovated Race View in 1982, but he kept the Polish cane wood chairs that can be easily dismantled and the 1960s English Electric refrigerator.
Over the years, RaceView has fed the likes of Behram Contractor, the founder editor of the Afternoon Despatch & Courier , and former railway minister George Fernandes during his trips to the railway yard at Tardeo. Today, the regulars at Race View happen to be in the area more for its office space than the turf. The original spicy, oil-rich kheema pao and crisp potato chops share menu space with the bread pudding and bombil fry that are popular as takeaway with executives from Mahalaxmi and Lower Parel. It isn't uncommon to spot a table of Time Out staff in the salmon-painted interiors of the shack, hunched over the addictive and reasonably-priced fare of mutton biryani, French toast and a million cups of strong tea.
D’Costa has a stack of Race View stories, of how the restaurant used to make a month’s earnings from weekend race days. “The Parsis and Catholics used to come in their suits and ties from the races,” he recalled. “We used to have a phone, so the bookies would make their calls from here – now they all have mobile phones.”
Race View Restaurant has swankier cousins in the area, and D’Costa may take a dim view of the sports acumen of the younger race spectators. But as a fresh set of hooves heat up the Mahalaxmi racecourse this February, D’Costa knows that some of the restaurant’s customers would have come in because they remembered. Saumya Ancheri
Race View Restaurant, KK Marg, opposite Race Course Gate No 6, Mahalaxmi (2353-3986). Daily 7.30am-9pm.
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